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New Year’s Eve
Interesting facts about New
Year’s Eve
In the Gregorian calendar (today mostly in use), New
Year’s Eve, the last day of the year, is on December 31.
New Year’s Eve is all about numbers. Indeed, we spend the entire day counting down the hours
until 11 p.m., when we start counting the minutes, which we do until 11:59
p.m., when we start counting the seconds.
December 31, 2018 and January 1, 2011 – New Year’s Eve
and New Year’s Day are on a Monday and Tuesday.
The International Date Line, located at 180
degrees longitude and on the exact opposite side of the earth of the prime
meridian, denotes the passage of a calendar date from the day before. The
countries west of the line move into a new day first, and other countries
(moving westward) follow.
Samoa and parts of Kiribati are the first places to
welcome the New Year while American Samoa and Baker Island in the United
States, are among the last.
Many cultures celebrate the event in some manner.
Common traditions include
attending parties, eating special New Year’s foods, making resolutions for the
new year and watching fireworks displays.
The earliest recording of a new year celebration is believed to have been in Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C. and
was celebrated around the time of the vernal equinox, in mid-March.
A variety of other dates tied to the seasons were also used by
various ancient cultures. The
Egyptians, Phoenicians, and Persians began their new year with the fall
equinox, and the Greeks celebrated it on the winter solstice.
The early
Roman calendar designated March 1 as the new year. The
calendar had just ten months, beginning with March.
In 1582, the Gregorian
calendar reform restored January 1 as New Year’s Day.
In present day, with most countries now using the
Gregorian calendar as their de facto calendar, New Year’s Day is probably the
most celebrated public holiday, often observed with fireworks
at the stroke of midnight as the new year starts in each time zone.
A New
Year’s resolution is a tradition, most common in the
Western Hemisphere but also found in the Eastern Hemisphere, in which a person
resolves to change an undesired trait or behavior.
“Auld
Lang Syne” is traditionally sung at midnight on New Year’s Eve.
It was written by Scottish poet Robert Burns in 1788. He may have based it on a
folk song. The words auld lang syne mean “times gone by”.
Popping champagne corks at the stroke of midnight is a mainstay on New Year’s
Eve, whether at swanky parties or home celebrations.
Each New Year’s Eve 1 million people gather in New York City’s’s
Times Square to watch famous ball drop.
Another 1 billion people from around the world will watch the famed ball drop
on TV.
Every year Berlin hosts one
of the largest New Year’s Eve celebrations in all of Europe, attended by over a
million people. The focal point is the Brandenburg
Gate, where midnight fireworks are centered. Germans toast the New Year with a
glass of Sekt (German sparkling wine) or Champagne.
The celebration in London focuses
on Big Ben (Westminster Clock Tower) the bell and by
association the clock housed in the clock tower at the Palace of Westminster.
These celebrations are aired by the BBC and other networks.
The largest celebration in
Australia is held in its largest city: Sydney.
The “Midnight Fireworks” are regularly watched by approximately 1.5–2 million people at Sydney
Harbour. As one of the first major New Year’s celebrations
globally each year, Sydney’s Midnight Fireworks are often broadcast throughout
the world during the day of 31 December.
In Dybai, United Arab
Emirates, New Year’s fireworks are set off from Jumeirah Beach
(including Burj Al Arab) and the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa. The
New Year fireworks display at Burj Khalifa is among the world’s most expensive.
At midnight on December 31, Buddhist temples all over Japan ring
their bells a total of 108 times
to symbolize the 108 human sins in Buddhist belief, and to get rid of the 108
worldly desires regarding sense and feeling in every Japanese citizen. A major
attraction is The Watched Night bell, in Tokyo.
Mexicans celebrate New Year’s Eve, by
eating a grape with each of the twelve chimes of a clock’s
bell during the midnight countdown, while making a wish with each one.
In some cities of Colombia, Cuba and Puerto Rico, there
is a tradition of making a male doll that is stuffed with memories from the
past year, all dressed with the clothes of the outgoing year and is
called Mr. Old
Year. At midnight, the doll is set on fire symbolizing erasing
of the bad memories.
There is a music festival every New Year’s eve in the
Antarctic called ‘Icestock’
In Italy, people wear red underwear on
New Year’s Day to bring good luck all year long.
Until 2006, the Space Shuttle never flew on New Year’s
day or eve because its computers couldn’t handle a year rollover.
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